Between Two Points
by Xazz
Summary: The day Lugh settled will be the day Mike Ross never forgets. It was a week after his parents died.
1. Quoth the Raven

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><p>The day Lugh settled will be the day Mike Ross never forgets. It was a week after his parents died. Lugh had been shifting through forms so rapidly, unable to find stability in any form that he was only still in his sleep. Then, on the day Mr. and Mrs. Were buried Lugh took the form of a raven and sat on the gravestone as the pastor read over the holes in the earth. He made no noise and Mike had his eyes fixed on his dæmon as his gram held onto his shoulder, her own dæmon mourning with her. Mike however couldn't even begin to look at the grave as Lugh stood there, poised and erect, staring out at all the other people and dæmons with a sort of hard eyed stare that only ravens had as the priest droned on about his parents.<p>

When Lugh had met his eyes Mike had only blinked at him and then as one they'd turned and stared into the open pits, side by side, where fresh, cedar coffins, rested. It took a long time for his gram to convince him to leave the cemetery, because Lugh would not leave, and whenever Mike came near he would fly up just out of reach and not even speak to him, just caw and screech. In this way Mike missed the after-party. He couldn't say he was upset, he didn't want to see their pity. Mike was ten years old, he didn't need their pity or sympathy. He's wanted his parents back.

Late that night, after everyone had gone to sleep Mike lay awake with Lugh sitting on his chest. The dæmon had not spoken much since that morning, which was odd for Lugh, he was normally very talkative and unlike Mike would be more than willing to expel the wealth of knowledge they had. He'd run his fingers along Lugh's beak and glossy feathers. "Is this is?" he'd asked, because Lugh had not changed at all, all day, or night. A strange thing since not a day prior he hadn't been able to even hold a form for more than five minutes.

Lugh had stretched out his pretty black wings and seemed to examine them. "This is it," he'd clacked and folded his wings back against his body. "What do you think?"

Mike had smiled thinly at that, "Perfect," he'd proclaimed, "as always," and Lugh had made a soft warbling sound, almost like that of a human giggle, and together they fell asleep.

—

While not unheard of, it was rare for a boy as young as Mike to have a settled dæmon. Especially like the one he had. Usually ravens were associated with older gentlemen, and really they weren't common bird dæmons to possess. But Mike always supposed that those older gentleman had had to start somewhere, like Mike did. One was not simply old. The men of note with ravens had been young once too.

Children were not especially kind to boys who settled 'too early'. He was seen as stuck up, too good, a goodie-two-shoes, all because Lugh had settled. Few, if any, wanted to be Mike's friend growing up.

He was fine with that. After the death of his parents Mike grew disinterested in people as those who were his age developed contempt for him. It was during this time that Mike became lost in books. Before he'd always enjoyed learning and reading, but before he'd had friends to distract him from them. Now there were no friends like that. His gram bought him books all the time and Mike's interests shifted constantly much like Lugh's form once had. His appetites for books was insatiable and he read fast and remembered everything. Often Lugh would sit on his shoulder as he read and would read with him, raven eyes understanding as clearly as Mike himself did.

Middle school was kinder to Mike. By then more children's dæmon's had settled and he was no longer the strange child with the early settling dæmon. But it wasn't until he moved in the seventh grade that he broke away from stigma of being the raven-boy.

It was in this new school that he met Trevor. Trevor with the unsettled dæmon who thought Lugh was one of the coolest things he'd ever seen since ravens weren't birds you saw in New York City all that often, especially not this close. He of course never touched Lugh, but he'd get close and look and his own dæmon would stroke Lugh's feathers. Though that was only when Lugh let her. He did not like to be touched, he hadn't been since Mike's parents had died. Before Lugh had let almost any dæmon touch him, but after he only let gram's butterfly dæmon touch him on a regular basis.

Trevor's dæmon settled just before freshman year into the form of a bird eating spider. Lugh's disposition towards her soured after that. Mike thought he was being silly, but Lugh didn't let Anikii near him much after that.

When they entered a new high school Mike stopped broadcasting that Lugh was a male dæmon. It hit especially hard after he'd heard about a girl with a female dæmon get beat up after school because she might have been a lesbian. Mike didn't want that to happen to him just because Lugh and he shared a gender. So Mike stopped sharing it and only Trevor knew, and Trevor wouldn't tell. Trevor was his best friend, through thick and thin, and so what if Lugh didn't like Anikii, he and Mike got along awesome. Trevor wasn't his only friend now though, which made Mike happy.

He made friends with the kids in chess club, and science club, both things Trevor teased him about but for the first time in a long time Mike had other friends. People who were smart like him too. It wasn't that Trevor was dumb. He just… well he wasn't nearly as smart as Mike, and always said Mike had a cool 'freak' brain. He ignored Trevor's teasing and did things he enjoyed and hung out with the geeks and the nerds and tried to enjoy his high school years.

Mike finished Valedictorian of his high school senior class. He'd never been more proud and Lugh hadn't been able to shut up for five seconds when they were told. Eventually he'd had to wrestle his dæmon into silence because he'd been disrupting class. With the top graduating spot and a full ride to NYU under his belt Mike was on top of the world.

Mike had known for a long time that he wanted to be a lawyer. He'd liked debate, and had read a bunch of seemingly dry, boring, books from the library all on law. It was fascinating to him. Lugh liked it too. Mike took to like Lugh would to a silver coin.

His few years as an undergrad were dedicated to Law. He read all the textbooks and flew through his assignments. Trevor took some computer classes for some sort of tech degree.

In college was where Trevor met Jenny. Beautiful, golden, Jenny. She had a stunning smile and Mike thought she was beautiful.

College was also where Mike discovered he really wasn't attracted to girls.

Honestly he'd never been totally floored by the idea of having a girlfriend, especially not with Lugh. He loved Lugh more than he wanted a girlfriend and so just pushed off the idea that he'd have one. Also girls tended to coo over how 'cute' he was, how 'adorable' and 'precious' he looked, like a little boy. Mike had kept a baby face even after puberty and he'd realized quickly that while girls adored him, none of them wanted to date him. He wasn't too upset about it, and Lugh had just snorted at them in obvious contempt.

In college though people weren't assholes like they were in high school. Not to mention this was the new millennia, all sorts of new ideas were being thrown around. It was perfectly acceptable to be gay. Mike still refrained from broadcasting Lugh's gender though, more out of habit then anything else really.

Mike's first kiss was with a guy named Alfred, a Puerto Rican with an ass you could bounce a quarter off of. Like Mike Alfred had a male dæmon as well, it was why Mike felt comfortable with him. He'd later find out that while the gender of your dæmon sometimes reflected your sexuality, it wasn't always and he had quite a few other bed mates with female dæmons, some who were way gayer than Mike.

In his junior year Trevor convinced Mike to sell the answers to a math test.

Mike's entire world had crumbled from there. He lost his scholarship, and a black mark had been put against his name by the NYU Dean. He wouldn't get into another college in the state with a mark like that and Mike couldn't leave New York, not with his gram's slowly failing health. Trevor stuck with in though, even though his boyfriend at the time was so turned off by what Mike had done that he dumped the blonde the day before Valentine's Day.

It was officially the second worst thing that had ever happened to Mike.

—

After his expulsion from higher learning he started working odd jobs. He couldn't not. He had to help support his gram who was starting to get too old to work. It was during this time that Trevor started to deal drugs. Mike had been pretty strait edge up to that point, as he was a social drinker though didn't go out of his way to get hammered like some of his former friends had (most of the friends he'd made in college were ashamed to know him after the math test blew up in his face), but Trevor introduced him to weed.

Lugh had tutted and bitched at him when he started to form a habit. Mike chose to ignore Lugh though because when he was high… it was nice. Mike was under a lot of stress from having to take care of his gram more and more, as well as himself and worked three jobs to cover all the bills. He was considering taking a forth as his gram had recently taken a fall and dislocated her hip. He was seriously thinking of putting her in a home. Not for any reason than her own safety and happiness though. He worried over her constantly. The drugs helped and Lugh's complaints grew less and less frequent till he never complained.

Mike's life continued. He lived basically pay check to pay check, and his gram was in a home where she'd be looked after, the best he could afford. But then he got the news about that imore/i money was needed. More money than Mike had.

It was only because he was desperate, that he agreed to be Trevor's gopher. Lugh had kicked up a storm over that. More than Mike had ever seen him. But as they went into the hotel Lugh was a silent shadow on his shoulder, sharp raven eyes catching every tiny detail, like the day he'd first settled and had sat staring at the mourners from his father's tomb stone.

He almost got caught by the cops. But as he skidded into an interview Mike could barely think. He was flustered and confused and on his shoulder Lugh flapped to keep his place on Mike's shoulder. The smart remark bubbled up out of his mouth at the red head bomb shell without thinking. She'd seemed stunned, but in a good way and in a whirl he was being faced with a shark in a suit. A really handsome shark in a suit.

Mike didn't know it then, but it was one of the single best days of his life.


	2. Lioness Rampart

Harvey always knew that when Sehkmet settled she'd be a creature to behold. While his family had come from nothing every dæmon of the family was always a _something_. His father had a badger, and his mother a Maine Coon longhair with sharp and intelligent yellow eyes like moon discs. Even his little brother, when his Chelstra settled into a ermine, had a dæmon who was _something_. Sehkmet was no different.

As a boy he'd always been the one with the small dæmon. He kept to himself, and had hit his growth spurt late, far after all the other boys had nearly reached their adult height. He had friends, many friends, despite his quietness and the ones he was close to knew that despite his reservations to being loud and obnoxious he had a big heart, a cunning mind, and a drive to be everything that was seemingly denied him because of his poor family. He wouldn't let his father's blue collar job or his mother's work as just a hospital nurse stop him from doing what he wanted. He had his sights set on being a pro baseball player and that's what he wanted more then anything.

When he was twelve he thought Sehkmet had settled. She'd taken the form of a silver fox, fur black and glimmered in the sun like quick silver. She'd stayed like that for a week before he'd woken up to her in the form of a Meadowlark. A _silent_ Meadowlark. That form hadn't lasted a day before she was rippling through a new one every five minutes, unable to find herself.

She didn't settle for a long time. He was in high school, a junior on the varsity baseball team. By then everyone else had settled, he was the one boy at school who hadn't. Though when he went to school she always took the same shape, that of a King snake; a deceiver. He hated her for that, but really he could never hate her.

In his junior year he injured his shoulder and saw his life as a pro ball player slip from his fingers. He did drugs, a lot of drugs, fell into the wrong crowd, and barely graduated high school. Sehkmet still hadn't settled. He was eighteen and still held a shifting dæmon who sometimes would just slip through his fingers like smoke. It didn't help that she was temperamental, like him, never happy, never satisfied. She wanted the best, and he wanted perfection. They were the same coin and occupied both heads. His parents always gave him concerned looks when they'd see Sehkmet shift forms, sometimes at the dinner table to pick up a vegetable Harvey didn't eat as a primate, or when they sat on the couch watching the news as a beagle at his feet. But Harvey was no one's dog, and he was no simian. The forms continued to change and he hated it. For about a week he hated Sehkmet too, as he'd never hated her before. She would not settle.

One day, when they were twenty he grabbed her and set her in front of him. "Why won't you settle?" he'd demanded.

"Because we aren't ready," she'd told him, in the form of a lynx, all sharp face and long, soft, legs. "We are better."

He'd narrowed his eyes at her. "You make me look like a child in front of everyone," he said, a little bit of spite in his voice. This was the week he'd hated her. "Only children do not have settled dæmons."

"Then grow up," she'd told him blankly and he'd stared at her, shocked. "We are one, and I cannot do unless you're ready. Unless we're _both_ ready."

After that conversation he'd stopped trying to hate her. He left the bad friends he'd made after injuring his shoulder, and stopped doing drugs. He got a job as a garbage truck man, hauling trash all day to help his family. Sehkmet would just look at him with her cool, sharp, eyes as a King snake. She was waiting. The garbage truck wasn't for them. He got another job. She stayed a King snake, but when they were home would shift and pace like a caged animal. She was always restless, and so was he. Harvey couldn't hold a job for more then a month, because it was _never_ good enough. Not for him, not for her. They were _better_ then this.

Then he got a job at a law firm at the mailroom. He hated it. But he was good at it.

One day he caught an error, a big one, one that involved a lot of money, he alerted his boss. Nothing was done about it. He realized that it was going to be covered up and was furious. So he went to his boss' boss, and his boss, and their boss too, all the way up to Jessica Pearson. She had a big office with an amazing view, her own dæmon laying in an large half aquatic aquarium that was murky with plants and crunchy, floor dwelling, sea life. He told her what he'd found. She was impressed, she'd _smiled_ at him.

Three weeks later he was called back up to Mrs. Pearson's office about what he'd found. They'd talked, and there, in front of Jessica Pearson Sehkmet had shifted. Harvey had felt _mortified _and wanted the floor to open up and swallow him whole. It was a secret, his dirty little secret. But Sehkmet had just sat there, proud and head up, eyes bright like copper coins, staring right at Jessica Pearson, _daring_ her to say anything. Jessica, if anything, had just been amused, she had a secret smile, one that was tucked up into her cheek. After that she asked if he wanted to be her assistant. He'd said yes, trying to glance at Sehkmet, but keep his eyes on Jessica as well.

Then she let him go and only once he left the building, after having packed up his desk at the mail room, as he'd never be going back there again, did he even look at Sehkmet properly. He'd been properly stunned. Normally she took the form of the King snake, or other small things, never taller then his knee. This was different, _very_ different. She was a lioness, huge and dark, nearly red in shade with a cream underbelly and her tail tip banded slightly in pale umber.

He'd stared at her, dumb struck and then had uttered words he felt he'd never get the right answer to, "Is this it?"

If she'd been capable of a smile she would have, "This," she said and did a lap around him, "Is it."

—

Harvey met Donna his last year in law school in Boston. She was like Scotty, brilliant, beautiful, and a bit terrifying. Well, perhaps more then a bit terrifying and Makuara her dæmon had a smile the same as hers. Near dangerous, but always drawing you in. He literally could not stay away from her, but he both respected her too much and was too scared of her to try and get into her pants like he did with Scotty, and he was a moth to her flame red hair. They became friends, _good friends_, like brother and sister. She was nothing though, just a waitress, but like him she was never satisfied, like him he wanted perfection. They made an excellent team, and never lost anything, _ever_.

When he graduated, BAR successfully passed, he asked her to come to New York with him. She'd smiled and said yes. That was how they became roommates for more then a year. There were times, god were there times, when they almost cross over that line between friends into something else. But they always backed up, and drew the line a-new. Donna told him strait up she wouldn't mind having sex with him, but she wouldn't do that to him, wouldn't do that to _them_. So their relationship stayed professional, friendly.

Harvey worked as a Pearson and Hardman minion for two years before getting his own real desk in a small office he shared with another low level lawyer of the firm. His name was Louis and was a few years older then him with a tiny rodent dæmon who would sniff and snuff at everything. Louis made it clear the first day they worked together that he wasn't Harvey's friend and never would be.

Sucked for him he was very wrong.

By the end of the month Louis was a regular at his and Donna's apartment and they'd watch baseball games, and the Yankees crush other teams, or yell at the screen when the Red Sox managed to best them, and eat cheap pizza and drink cheaper beer. Or occasionally, rarer, watch the Giants pummel and be pummeled into the gridiron by the other team. Harvey didn't like football much though, he thought it was classless. Donna liked it because of the tight pants. And Louis loved football in all the ways Harvey loved baseball.

And for many years, even when Jessica sent Harvey to learn under Cameron Dennis, life was good, and Sehkmet and her sharp lioness eyes watched everything, always pleased. This was what they'd been waiting for. _This_ was what they were.

—

The day a scrawny blonde stumbled into his interview he didn't know what would happen. He'd seen the raven on his shoulder and had thought it a bit strange. Ravens weren't common dæmons. But then neither were lions either. It was different from the other dæmons of the other recent graduates, who had dogs, or cats, or small animals. They were smart, but safe. There was something about this kid, that became especially apparent when his briefcase spilled open, that sent static under his skin. From next to the desk Sehkmet had rumbled, pawed at the ground, flexing her long claws, but said nothing more.

He listened to the kid's story. Man it was a sob story too. Sehkmet had her head on his lap, looking up at him. She was a very quiet dæmon, even as far as dæmons went, and he'd learned to read her eyes decades ago. 'This one', they said, 'this one can keep up with us. Don't let him get away.'

He knew it was against the rules, even as he was surprised by the kid's brain. Really what a big, beautiful, brain it was indeed. He saw it as he stared at him, reading and reciting pages from his head from a perfect memory, able to bring to mind any page in any book he'd ever read. He'd thought about not doing it, about picking a generic Harvard douche, but as he'd gone to the door to check to ensure there were no cops he felt Sehkmet's eyes on him. They bored into him as he looked outside. There were the other candidates, all lined up, staring at their shoes or at their recommendation letters, all with soft, fluffy, dæmons. He glanced back at the kid, at Mike, he had his knuckles to his mouth, and he could read the lines of desperation on his shoulders. He knew, without a doubt, that he couldn't let this kid go. Across the room Sehkmet rumbled, knowing what he was thinking, it startled the other man. Harvey'd smirked then.

Fuck the rules. He'd never been one to abide by them his entire life. His dæmon wasn't either. They were different. They were _better_, and were always the best. They'd settle for nothing but. If Harvey let Mike walk out that door he wouldn't just be settling for second best, he'd be settling for last place.

Harvey didn't do _last place_.


	3. Love is a Crocodile

There was always a certain way things had to be in the Paulson family. Girls wore dresses and boys wore blue jeans. In the winter when the snow kept everyone inside and even the students in the city were quiet, huddled around their little radiators, the family would sit around the TV and watch the Christian channels. The four Paulson children would sit quietly on the couch, watching, their dæmons in their laps, and their father in his arm chair, mother either in the kitchen or her own chair on the other side. The Paulson children all had soft dæmons, like their parents. Things that were small and furry with quivering noses and wet eyes. Their parents would smile fondly on their children, winter or summer. Their perfect children in dresses and blue jeans with their safe dæmons and good manners. At least most of the time.

Makuara usually took the shape of a python. Or rats. Or lizards and spiders or scorpions or things that would make Mrs. Paulson _scream _with fright. Donna would smile behind her hand, secretly pleased, and even more pleased about the shorts and jeans she wore under her dresses and skirts.

Her father never approved. He'd tut at her, scold her for scaring her mother and tell her to make Makuara take a different shape, a more _pleasant_ shape. She'd do so and Makuara would become a rooster and scream his crowing voice so loud it set off car alarms. Then she'd bundle her dæmon up and run out of the house and down the block where she'd shuck off her skirt or dress for the t-shirt and pants she wore underneath. She wasn't something to be kept like her sisters and brother. She was herself and no one would tell her what to be.

Her siblings settled first. Hannah a rabbit. Jessica a finch. Duncan a beagle. Soft. Cute. Donna sniffed at them when she saw them, Makuara clinging to her arm as a lemur or wrapped around her throat as a cobra.

Donna was not soft. She was fierce and fiery as he red hair. The only one who had her mother's red hair, the others all had their father's mop-water blonde hair. Pale and thin and strait as an arrow. Donna's was thick and vibrant orange with tangling curls that always made her cry and scream when her mother tried to brush it for her when she was a child. She learned to braid her hair herself and would throw it into a messy braid as soon as she woke up in the morning. She refused to let her mother touch her hair again.

She'd started playing girls lacrosse, against her parents' wishes, at her high school and once she learned how to play was very good at it. She loved to run and cheer and throw the ball and manipulate her crosse. During games and practice dæmons were allowed onto the field, but forbidden to touch the ball and the field often had dogs and cats or birds or any other animal running around in it. Makuara stayed on Donna until the day he settled. He liked reptile forms, things with unblinking eyes and feral eyes. As he got closer to settling his forms grew larger and more frequent as he tried to find one that fit.

The day her JV team won their tournament Makuara settled, his body liable to rip itself apart with pride as Donna came back to the side lines. She hadn't bothered to look for her parents, they were never there, but Duncan sometimes came. He was the one who supported her, always. He loved her like her parents never did. She jogged back to the side lines, high fiving her teammates and cheering and Makuara slid up next to her.

She'd always been weird. The pretty girl with the fierce reptile for a dæmon. The girl with the dæmon from things that people had nightmares about. Donna thought it was awesome. Duncan drove her home from her game celebration in high spirits, Makuara spread across most of the back seat as some sort of crocodile. She'd beamed at him and Tallin, her brother's beagle, had looked at him and then climbed onto his big back and started to howl. Not a sad howl, a happy howl.

"What's up with Tallin?" Donna had asked as they drove through the streets of Boston.

"You don't know?" Duncan had asked, exasperated and with a roll of his eyes.

"Know what?" she turned back to Makuara. "What's there to know Makky?" she asked him.

"This is us," Makuara had said, opening his mouth a bit in a crocodile smile.

Donna's eyes had widened, then she smiled wickedly, "Excellent," and had laughed. Duncan had sighed, as if to say what was he going to do with his little sister, but hadn't commented after that. Later Donna figured out that Makuara had taken the form of a speckled caiman, and she'd laughed at her parents when they found out this was the form their rebellious daughter's dæmon had taken.

—

In college Donna took drama. It didn't lead anywhere in particular though. She just found that she loved it. She kept up with lacrosse as well, but it wasn't her focus. She wanted to act and be on Broadway or go to Hollywood. Her parents approved of the acting, but not the lacrosse. At least they were happy about something.

Her major changed to nothing after a few years though. She didn't know what she wanted to do with her life. Yes there was acting, but she figured Broadway wasn't her thing, she couldn't sing, and had two left feet. And there was the problem that she was a bit camera shy. She gave up on acting and had to deal with her parents' slight scowls for months before she just decided to move out. She found a job on the other side of the Charles in Jamaica Plain, away from her family, but never _to_o far from them either. She started working at a little restaurant and it was good, though she often forewent food every few weeks to make sure she made rent.

The place she was working at fell through though when it closed, as places in Boston were prone to do and she had to find another job, this one in Cambridge at a pizza place called Ollie's down on Harvard Square.

That was where she met Harvey Specter, and his big lioness dæmon.

He came in every few days, dazed from studying and partying and in need of pizza that wasn't that square pizza place that Donna had never bothered to learn the name of. She was still living in Jamaica Plain and other then the Boston Tea Shop down JFK that made boba tea she didn't know many of the other places to eat in Cambridge.

Harvey was… well Harvey was everything someone could want in a guy really. He was tall, charming, and handsome. She watched him sweep not a few girls right off their feet. His dæmon, Sehkmet, liked her and Makky liked her back. The first time she met Harvey outside of work it was at the park down the street during one of the last warm days of autumn. She and Makky were out, lying in the grass, trying to get the last few bits of sun. She'd opened her eyes to Makky's delighted rumble and had turned to see Sehkmet pressing her head to Makuara's snout happily.

"Harvey!" she'd said sitting up, and he'd sat down next to her laden with a heavy back pack and deep circles under his eyes. He'd been screwing off a bit during the previous years at Harvard Law, but this was his last year, and he had the BAR to pass, he was freaking out. She'd calmed him and offered to help him study. Obviously he'd found that amusing, but she'd pushed the issue. So they went back to Harvey's apartment after getting a pizza from Ollie's and they stayed up late studying.

That had been the start of an amazing friendship.

In the beginning Donna had been thinking with her libido, she admitted it. She would have climbed Harvey like Mount Everest and ridden him like a rodeo cowboy. But there was never any time for that and before she knew it they'd settled into the comfortable cycle of just being friends. She liked that too. That didn't mean, however, that when he wasn't looking she didn't stare at his ass. When Sehkmet caught her doing it she'd just flick her tail in amusement. And Sehkmet always saw, she saw everything, even if Harvey himself didn't. That was probably why Makky and Sehkmet got along so well, they both saw, and were both big and intimidating creatures. What she and Harvey had was good, and she wanted for nothing from him.

When Harvey passed the BAR he said he was going back to New York. He had a job there. Then, like a high school boy asking his crush out on their first date, he'd asked if she wanted to come with him. She'd asked to think about it and had gone back to her five bedroom apartment in Jamaica Plain. She hadn't even needed the end of the night before she was calling Harvey saying yes, she'd go with him, but only if they were roommates.

New York was pretty much everything Boston was not. Boston was an old city. To be fair New York was too, but New York was… well it made even a city girl like Donna feel like a country bumpkin. Everything in New York was so much _more_ then anywhere she'd ever been. She fell in love almost instantly.

What she didn't love was the one bedroom apartment they rented.

Harvey slept on the fold out couch, Donna got the bed. He started working at P&H and for a few months she worked as a waitress. Then Harvey pulled some strings with his boss and got her a job as a low level computer monkey at the firm. Donna did well here. Better then well. She had always been good with electronics, and that was her job. No one gave her any lip either, or try to hit on her, or any other sort of anything she had no interest in, even when she was new, because of Makuara. You wouldn't give the pretty new girl any crap either if their dæmon was a six foot long caiman who lived under her desk and would growl at anyone she didn't like if they came by and she was working.

Like Harvey she gained status quickly. That was how they were alike, they would never settle for second best. They _were_ the best. When Harvey got to be important enough to have his own assistant Donna was right there and together they just continued to rise.

And then Cameron Dennis happened.

Cameron had a little gecko for a dæmon. One of those you saw in the south with a red throat like a sail. He was nice, kind, and took Harvey under his wing like a second father. And then it turned sour. Donna found out first what sort of dirty dealings Cameron was doing and had tried to show Harvey. He'd refused to acknowledge it. He said she was lying. They'd stood in their apartment, yelling at each other from across the room until Harvey had just walked out, slamming the door. It was the first time they'd ever fought. Donna went to bed that night thinking how much easier it would be if they were more then friends and they could just fuck it out.

He'd come back two days later, suit rumpled, with deep circles under his eyes, and maybe a bit puffy-eyed. Donna didn't bring any of it up and just hugged him tightly and they sat and watched Star Trek on their couch and ordered Thai food from the place a few blocks down. Silent Sehkmet curled up like a house cat at Harvey's feet with Makky half curled around her in turn.

They didn't stay with Cameron long after that.


End file.
